Slipping Through His Fingers
by MssChris822
Summary: Leaving your child behind on their first day of school is always hard for parents, especially Leo Wyatt. Short OneShot between Leo and Chris. Nothing important, just fluff.


**Disclaimer: **Still don't own Charmed…Sometimes I wish I did… I do own Miss Susie though!

**Summary: **Leaving your child behind on their first day of school is always hard for parents, especially Leo Wyatt. Short One-Shot between Leo and Chris. Nothing important, just fluff.

Yay! I actually have free time again…Just in time for school to start! Lol anyway…enjoy.

**Slipping Through His Fingers**

"Don't worry Mr. Wyatt we'll take good care of him." The young woman said. Leo smiled warmly at her and looked around the room to see children running around and playing with various toys scattered across the room.

"I have no doubt about it." Leo said. He crouched down to the floor to get eye level with his son and placed his hands on his arms, hoping to get his attention. The boy, however, was too busy watching everyone else having fun to notice.

"Chris…hey…look at me." The toddler whipped his head around to look at his father. He had a smile on his face a mile wide and his eyes were glistening with excitement. Leo, however, decided to ignore all the signs that Chris was itching to get out of his hold and play with all the other children. His little boy was started pre school today and part of him didn't want to believe that it was true. He wanted to hold on to his baby forever, to keep his childhood innocence as long as he possibly could.

"Now you be good okay—"

"Okay"

"And if you need me I'm just a call away alright?"

"Uh-huh"

"Miss Susie will take good care of you alright, there's nothing to worry about. You'll be just fine—"

"Dad…I know!" Chris said his tiny voice sounding as exasperated as possible. "I'll be _fine. _I'm a big boy now."

Leo smiled sadly and ruffled the little boy's hair. "I know you are." Leo chuckled as Chris reached up to smooth out his hair.

"Can I go now?" he asked. Leo smiled.

"Yea…" he said. Chris smiled and ran to a group of boys who were playing with hot wheels.

Leo stood up off the ground and clapped his hands together. Chris seemed to fit right in with the group of kids. He didn't give a second glance in his direction and Leo was hit with the sudden truth that his baby wasn't a baby anymore. He didn't need to him take care of every little thing, nor did he want to. Chris was too independent for his own good. Something that Leo tired desperately to change. But there was nothing to do about it. It seemed that it just came with the package.

He always wanted to do everything on his own. It was a trait that had earned them many wasted gallons of milk and days of backwards tee shirts and mix matched shoes. Piper and Leo had found that if they tried to correct him he would either get mad or they would hear his favorite phrase…

"I meant to do that…"

They'd even found him standing on a steeping stool in the attic looking through the book all by himself. When asked what he was doing the young boy responded by saying that he needed to find a way to vanquish the monster under his bed, which they later found out wasn't a monster at all but an old teddy bear that he'd lost months ago.

Everyone got a good laugh out of the situation but later that night Leo had found Piper alone in their room crying, clutching onto a shirt that he didn't recognize from his closet and by the looks of it hadn't been washed in years. When he walked closer he recognized it as one of Chris' that she obviously didn't give away after he died. He lay down beside her on the bed and held her as she continued to sob.

Before then he had never seen her cry over him. She usually chose to ignore the topic completely. But judging by the state that the shirt was in it was easy to tell that she had cuddled up with it before. It was covered with wrinkles and had a small tare on the right sleeve.

So many things reminded them of him. And as Chris got older the more evident it became. They could already see him in his eyes. Those dark green orbs that always held so much emotion, even in the smallest of problems. The way he smiled when he was embarrassed or the way he scowled when he was angry, it was all so reminiscent of the man they had lost. The young boy was already developing a very smart mouth, as smart as one could get at three years old anyway. That wasn't helped any by his Aunt Paige.

But what scared Leo the most was the fact that at any time he could lose him. In the blink of an eye his baby could be taken away from him. And not only by death, but by hatred. Leo wanted so badly to be a good father this time around, to make up for everything that he had done wrong the first time around, whatever it had been. It was the not knowing that scared him. The ignorance toward how Chris came to hate him. Were they always on bad terms? Or had something happened that made him feel that way? What if everything was wonderful and then somehow changed overnight? What if the little boy that he loved so much now wouldn't feel the same way towards him in twenty years?

Maybe that's why Leo didn't want him to grow up. Maybe if he stayed three forever then he wouldn't die and he wouldn't ever hate him. Life would just stay the way it was now and everything would be prefect.

"Youngest?" A voice cut into his thoughts. Leo whipped around to face Miss Susie.

"Yea…is it that obvious?" The teacher smiled and looked over at Chris. Looking back at Leo she noticed that he was watching the boy with a sad smile on his face.

"Parents usually have a harder time letting go of the baby of the family. It's perfectly normal. Plus, Chris doesn't seem to have any problems talking to the other children so it's not a surprise to know that he has siblings. If you'd like to you can stay here for the day."

"Um…no thanks I actually have to get to work, thanks though." Leo started to walk out the door but took one last glance at Chris. He had moved on to a toy dinosaur and was walking it all over a little people village. He turned around and started to walk away. Chris didn't need him here. There would come a time where he wouldn't need him at all. It was something he was just going to have to face. As days went by he was slipping through his fingers more and more and there was nothing he could do about it.

"DAD!"

Leo turned around just in time to see Chris running towards him. Leo crouched down on the floor and Chris ran into his arms, burying his face into his neck.

"I love you, Daddy." Leo squeezed the boy tightly against him.

"I love you too kiddo…Now go on. Have fun. I'll be back before you know it." Chris ran back to his toys and smiled widely at Leo who smiled back.

Maybe there would come a day when he wouldn't be needed. But that day certainly wasn't now. No…now Chris still needed him to tuck him in at night and tell him which shoe went on what foot. And as long as there was a monster under his bed his Daddy would be there to vanquish it.


End file.
